It is desirable to minimize the amount of sawdust remaining on the kerf walls when cutting work pieces. For example, excessive saw dust remaining on wood products, such as pallets, will tend to collect in the eyes and/or breathing passages of workers handling the pallets. In addition, dust can be particularly problematic when cutting frozen wood, such as logs. In particular, the fast-moving blade creates friction that, in turn, heats the wood and allows the wood to release moisture. The moisture collects on the kerf walls and sides of the band saw blade, and binds the sawdust thereon into a glue-like mixture. Then, the glue-like mixture freezes when the blade exits the work piece, resulting in a frozen, hardened layer of saw dust on the side walls of the blade. The frozen layer of sawdust can cause unwanted vibrations in the saw blade, and if sufficiently thick, can cause the blade to fracture.
U.S. Pat. No. 820,969 to Grelck (“Grelck”) shows a wood-cutting saw blade wherein the front of each tooth is provided with one or more projections which act as “sawdust-removers” to remove the sawdust as it is produced. More specifically, FIG. 1 shows a saw blade with each tooth “b” provided on its front or cutting edge and below its point with a projection “c”. In FIG. 4, each tooth is provided with two such projections “c” and “d” spaced relative to each other. Grelck teaches that only the very end of the point of the tooth is set, and thus the bend plane of each tooth is spaced above the projections “c” and “d”. Accordingly, saw dust which is created along the sides of the points that have been set is not captured by the projections “c” and “d” as they are below the bend plane. Instead, saw dust passes by either side of the projections in the direction of the kerf walls thereby building up and causing the above-described problems.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a saw blade which better reduces the quantity of saw dust collecting on the kerf walls.
It is also an object to overcome one or more of the above-described drawbacks and disadvantages of the prior art.